House-door letter-box



(No Model.) v J. W. COE, Jr.

HOUSE DOOR LETTER BOX.

Patented Nov. 1892.

Tru; Nokms paens co. PHoTaLxmo..j^/As UNITED vSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN IV. COE, JR., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

HOUSE-DOOR LETTER-BOX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 485,860, dated November 8, 1892.

Application led February 15, 1892. Serial No. 421,599. (No model.)

To all whom it may con/cern:

Be it known that I, JOHNW. COE, .I r., acitizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Letter-Boxes, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is make a letter-box for use at houses in which mail-matter may be deposited by the carrier and Which will ring a bell or other alarm or signal to notify the people in the house of the visits of the carrier; and my invention consists inthe features and details of construction hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of my improved letter-box; Fig. 2, an enlarged plan section taken on the line 2 of Fig. l; Fig. 3, a broken vertical section taken on line 3 of Fig. l; Fig. 4, a broken perspective view of the contact mechanism detached, and Fig. 5 an enlarged sectional View on the line 5 of Fig. 2.

In making my improved letter or mail box I make a box of the desired size and style to receive letters and other mail-matter that may be delivered by the carrier, corresponding in general features to the ordinary style of letter-box now in use. I provide it, however, With mechanism that Will cause .an alarm or signal-as, for instance, a bell-to be sounded Whenever matter is deposited in the box. To accomplish this, I mount the doorA of the box on a shaft d, that extends across the front of the box. The door A is mounted rigidly on the shaft d, as shown in Fig. 3, so that as the door is opened to introduce letters or other matters into the box the shaft will be turned. One end of the shaft extends out to one side of the box into, preferably, an inclosed room or compartment B. The casing forming the compartment B is fastened to the mail-box in any usual manner and serves, first, as abearing-plate for the spring-driven train-gears, and, second,as a housing to protect the same from the weather, dust, duc. A gear-wheel C is mounted on the shaft in the room or compartment, but so that the shaft may be turned in one direction independently of the Wheel, but not in the other. A pawl and ratchet c c',

one mounted on the shaft and the other on the gear-wheel, are arranged so that the shaft maybe turned in one direction Without turning the gear-wheel, but so that the gear-wheel and the shaft must turn together in the other direction. A gear-wheel C meshes into apinion on a shaft D, which is provided with a gear-wheel that meshes into a pinion on a shaft E, which is provided with a gear-wheel that meshes into a pinion on a shaft F. As many gears and pinions may be employed thus engaging with each other as required to make the motion of the door of the letter-box in closing as slow as desired. A spring G is mounted on the end of the shaft a, so that as such shaft is turned by the opening of the door the spring will be wound up and its tension increased. The spring is intended when the door is released to turn the shaft and the gear-wheel C in the direction to close the door, and to prevent the door from closing too quickly I have provided a train of gears mounted on shafts, as above explained, toretard the closing of the door the desired amount. At the side of the boxI pass the shaft through. or at the side of a block H of non-conducting material, provided with a metal rim or contact-surface h, from which the wire of an electric circuit extends to a battery I and thence to the metal side of the box. The Wires vl, forming the electric circuit, are preferably arranged as shown in Fig. 2, but can be attached in any desired manner, as in Fig. 1, where they extend out of the mail-box in such a manner as to pass through the partition or sides of the building Without being exposed to the weather, thus preserving the insulation for a much longer period of time. The shaft a is provided with a pin a', that moves over the surface h and in contact therewith as the shaft is turned, so as toV complete the circuit. The rim or contactsurface h may be provided with notches hone or moreso that the pin a will not be in contact With such surface as it passes over the notches. As the shaft o is turned while the door is being opened to admit letters or other mail-matter the pin will pass rapidly over the contact-surface h; but as the door closes through the unwinding of the spring G the pin will pass slowly back over the contactsurface, so that the circuit will be complete as the pin passes back, and by providing the contact-surface with notches the circuit will be broken at intervals. Whilev the pin is Ico' moving over and against the contact-surface the bell or Signal J will be rung. By thus breaking the circuit once or twice, as may be clesired, the bell will ring two or three times,

so as to inform the people in the house that it is not the ordinary door-bell that is being rung, but is the bell connected With the letter-box.

VhatI regard as new, and desire to secure ro by Letters Patent, is-

In combination with a mail-box, a door connected with an electric circuit normally open, but closed by the opening of the door to insert mail, and :t governor by which the circuit is kept closed to sound an alarm a predetermined length of time, substantial] y as described.

' JOHN XV. COE, JR.

VVltnesses:

THOMAS A. BANNING, SAMUEL E. HIBBEN. 

